with Beth Hansen, Bryan Konefsky, Keif Henley, Justin Clifford Rhody
moderated by Luke Henley, CCA Head of Cinema Programming
Sunday, September 18, 4pm | $10 | CCA Cinema
Join us for an in-depth discussion on underground cinema culture and the nature of microcinemas—small-scale exhibition venues that provide noncommercial, nontheatrical options for experimental films. The panel includes Beth Hansen (Basement Films, Vice President), Bryan Konefsky (Basement Films, Current Present); Keif Henley (owner/operator of The Guild & former president of Basement Films); and Justin Clifford Rhody (founder & co-operator of No Name Cinema). The conversation will be moderated by CCA Head of Cinema Programming, Luke Henley.
The program will feature a unique 45-minute film program of selections from Basement Films’ archive of 16mm film prints—a cerebral celebration of celluloid, cultural ephemera and orphaned media!
This event is in conjunction with CCA Cinema Gallery’s current exhibition, Basement Films: 30 Years of Undependent Media, currently on view, free and open to the public, through October 15, 2022.
Beth Hansen is a lifelong New Mexican and Basement Films member since 2010. She currently serves as vice president, teaches film workshops, makes fliers, runs projectors, helps produce the annual Experiments in Cinema film festival, and works to maintain the Basement Films film collection as an amateur archivist. Beth’s other creative pursuits include collaborative projects with GRAFT Collective and curatorial work at fourteenfifteen Gallery and Alpaca in Albuquerque.
Bryan Konefsky is the director and founder of Experiments in Cinema international film festival and the president of Basement Films (one of the few remaining first-generation micro cinemas). Konefskyʼs creative work has been supported by New Mexico Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, New Mexico Arts, The Trust For Mutual Understanding and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Konefsky has lectured about experimental cinema and screened his own films in countries such as Russia, Korea, Serbia, Spain, Morocco, Germany, Cuba, UK, and Argentina.
Keif Henley has been an Albuquerque resident since the early 70s attending public schools and later a student at both University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, though never graduating from either. A former primary organizer and board member of Basement Films in the mid to late 90s, he is, since 2004, an owner of the single-screen arthouse The Guild Cinema, the oldest still-running movie theater in the city. A professional cake batter malt tester who offers his services for free, he’s also been known to have a compulsion of varying degrees to play music & do something creative though some weeks go by better than others on that end of things.
Justin Clifford Rhody is the founder of No Name Cinema, a Santa Fe-based microcinema, gallery and community gathering space showcasing international and local experimental, avant-garde and repertory films, videos and visual art. Identifying as a “no-profit, non-business, anti-capitalist operation,” the organization states, “Our programming mission is to select works that use the filmic medium as an art form rather than passive entertainment, to encourage an open dialogue within the community and to offer a platform for transgressive and marginalized voices and perspectives.” Read more here.
